Every winter, local news may mention Red Flag is happening at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, announcing, “be warned: it’s going to be loud in the northeast valley.” Beyond that, not many locals know what Red Flag is or why it happens.
KNPR got an inside look at the military exercise this week.
Let’s start with the basics: Red Flag is an annual period of combat training at Nellis Air Force Base between the U.S. military and its allies. For this year’s Red Flag 24-1, Americans were joined by the Royal Air Force from the U.K. and the Royal Australian Air Force, with 30 units in total participating.
Military officials established the program in 1975 to better prepare forces for combat. It’s held by the Air Force’s Warfare Center and Nellis. In the exercise, participants are taught "high-end warfighting techniques through strategic competition."
On the tour, we were shown a variety of planes, including three B-2 Spirit stealth bombers. While we didn’t see them in action that day, we did get insight as to how they’re used.
“Essentially, they will be going up into the airspace first, and then the jets will meet them. And then they'll practice that integration with that formation to say, 'Okay, we're gonna go and we're going to make sure that the B-2 can penetrate this target," said Second Lieutenant Lindsay Weichel from the 509 Bomb Wing Public Affairs.
She adds, “What does that look like when it's a scenario that's pretty scary, you have aggressors coming from the back, and the B-2, you can't turn around the B-2, it needs to go ahead, the fighters are going to split off and they're going to engage with that adversarial force, if you will, and the B-2 is going to continue on to complete its mission.”
Weichel pointed out that the stealth bomber is made in the U.S. There are 21 in existence, but its replacement, the B-21, went into production this week.
“We are the only stealth bomber in the world. And we're ready to go anytime, anywhere," she said. "So we're still practicing that capability of making sure that we are a precision long range air strike capability. The B-2 has an unfilled range of 6,000 miles. … They're going to be making sure that they can go and hold a target under threat and then they're going to come back, they can practice hot-pit refueling and get right back up. “
The specifics of the mission, of course, are classified.
From there, our tour went to the flight line, where F-35s, Typhoons and other fighter jets took off in groups for training. And, yes, it is loud.
There, we spoke with Colonel Eric Winterbottom of the 414th Combat Training Squadron.
“Effectively, we're introducing [the pilots] to the chaos of combat, we're launching 50-plus airplanes a day to be Blue Air, and roughly 25 planes a day to be Red Air up in the in TTR, which is the airspace just to the north of here. “
Winterbottom is referring to the Nevada Test and Training Range.
“To do a variety of scenarios, we start out typically with what we call DCAA, defensive counter air, which is where Blue Air attempts to defend an area and prevent Red Air, the opponents, from bombing the targets on what we call the defended asset list.”
Red Flag was created from lessons learned in the Vietnam War, which showed pilots who survive 10 missions are exponentially more likely to survive future missions.
“I would say in addition to exposing the crews to that first 10 missions of chaos, if you will, so that they're better postured when they go into real combat situation where they're shot at the integration," Winterbottom said. "I think just the other really important factor that we're providing all of those troops here. “
Currently, the U.S. and U.K. are operating together in Yemen, where, in mid-January, they bombed more Iranian-backed Houthi sites.
But they’re not training for current scenarios.
“You can imagine that over the years, we've had a variety of Middle Eastern, close air support, dynamic targeting, air-to-air, Korea, we definitely do evolve over time, but not quite at the pace of what's happening in Yemen today.”
We also spoke with one of the Australian F-35 pilots, Dan Armstrong.
“We can train at home, we can operate at home and defend Australia. But if we're ever operating as part of a larger package, it's going to be with the Americans, it's going to be with the U.K. And so it's critical here that we get our training.”
All that we were learning came to life during the ride in a Royal Air Force Voyager, a large refueling plane.
“As we move out next week into the Pacific, operating hundreds of miles over the coastline, all of a sudden the tanks will be key, because without the tanker, none of this stuff could be delivered," said Paul Summers, Officer Commanding of the Royal Air Force’s 101 Squadron.
“If you haven’t got a tanker, you cant project the air power you want to.”
There are many similarities to a commercial flight, including rows of seats, small windows and even beverage and snack service. The seats, however, can be removed to hold cargo or for gurneys.
The biggest difference is what you see out the window during refueling.
At about 20,000 feet over restricted airspace north of Las Vegas, long hoses extended from the aircraft, each with what looked like a basket at the end. The jets, two at a time on either side of the plane, extended arms to insert into the baskets, refueling the aircraft while flying. In combat, this allows the pilots to fly longer and further.
On board, Simon Tofrik of the Royal Air Force 3(F) Squadron explained more about the exercise.
“They’re all a little bit different. But there’s control of the air, defensive control of the air, offensive, strike and suppression of enemy air defense. The four biggest roles. Scenarios will be different day-to-day depending … on the missions.”
Does the refueling process leave the aircraft vulnerable in a fight?
“That’s in how you plan the whole mission," Tofrik said. "Right now, there will be guys already in front of this tanker in enemy territory with radar and missiles making sure enemy aircraft don't get within a range of being able to shoot at the aircraft. While they're on the tanker, they're not in the fight as it were, they’re topping up to replace those guys. So there’s always someone in front and behind.”
Col. Winterbottom said they’ll conduct a Red Flag with the Dutch in the spring, and an American only scenario in summer.
Next time you get that noise alert, you’ll know what it means.
